[lazyant]

Dogs are the 3rd deadliest animal to humans (discounting humans themselves), but since they are popular pets and more like another family member in some Western countries, they get a big pass imho (or rather, their owners) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_deadliest_to_h...

[afiori]

This is like the statistics that cows kill more people than sharks, if it was common to keep bears as pets they would kill way more people than dogs

[xnx]

> Dogs are the 3rd deadliest animal to humans

4th according to that confusing chart (confusing because mosquitos are off to the side).

[jefftk]

How much of being third deadliest is just there are tons of dogs around humans, so they have far more opportunities for an interaction to go poorly?

[rglynn]

Yeah, given that I'm surprised the number isn't higher. Also there's this note:

> Dogs seldom kill humans directly. Rather, they are primarily a vector that transmits rabies

[aitchnyu]

Looks like most of them are stray dog attacks. There was an Indian operation where 25% of dogs rounded up had rabies, and vaccines fail due to improper storage.

[n8henrie]

What? 25%? Isn't rabies in dogs lethal in fairly short order (like in humans)?

I'm pretty sure the rural county in which I work hasn't seen rabies in a dog since like 1986.

I work in an emergency room (frequently caring for dog bites) in an area with numerous packs of strays. Dog rabies is always a concern, but I've never seen a confirmed case.